First of all sorry, but most of the information is in french. So to make it quick, the Régie des Rentes du Québec (Social insurance program) migrated all of their workstation from Windows XP to Vista and upgraded Microsoft Office to 2007. Savoir-faire Linux, a Montreal based compay specializes in free software services. Savoir-faire Linux has made several requests to the Régie des rentes du Québec but the organisation is maintaining its decision to renew their software without launching a call for tenders. Savoir-faire Linux is now calling upon the courts to declare that the Régie cannot proceed in this manner and that it must give all suppliers, including free software suppliers, the chance to bid.

For years education has been using what everyone uses for IT, that other OS on thick clients. It doesn't work for education because IT is seen as an expense to be minimized rather than a means to generate revenue. Education can use IT to do the things that are best done with IT:

Response to the Government of Canada's RFI - NO CHARGE LICENSED SOFTWARE
Response to the Government of Canada's RFI - NO CHARGE LICENSED SOFTWARERobert Pogson2009-2-7
Abstract:
In response to this RFI, it is proposed to deal with “NO CHARGE
LICENSED SOFTWARE” in two streams:

• Free Software which the government is free to use, examine
source code, modify source code and to distribute changes including
source code

• Non-Free Software which may have a no-cost licence but
which does not allow copying, examination of source code or distribution.

Free and Non-Free Software have different technological risks, levels
of reliability and flexibility. The Government should respect these
differences to make the best use of information technology.

Over the past year or two I’ve been drifting away from Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mandriva towards distros derived from Slackware for desktop use. The reason is simple: these distributions tend to have the best performance I’ve found, particularly on older or limited hardware. Slackware itself lacks some graphical tools and user friendly features that more popular distros have but is outstanding in terms of stability and reliability. A number of Slackware derived distros retain those benefits while offering the ease of use many of us have come to expect. AliXe is such a distro, albeit one designed to be small and compact, making it particularly suitable for older hardware. True to it’s Canadian heritage, AliXe also offers full support for both French and English despite it’s small size.

Linux-based and Unix-based apps are becoming commonplace in the enterprise, but some sectors are still holding out. IDC and Info-Tech explain why our financial institutions are reluctant to take the plunge. Also: a consultant tells us where they could be missing out

The Standards Council of Canada is seeking comments on a proposal to adopt Office Open XML (Open XML or OOXML) as an international standard. So far there are over 130 comments to this proposal and the message is clear. People don't want OOXML.

Open source has always been the underdog on the software scene, but it continues to draw intense interest from users and vendors alike in North America. Users want to avoid vendor lock-in and are attracted to potential cost savings. And vendors and value-added resellers see opportunities for innovation in the software market

Residents and visitors to the downtown business districts and post-secondary institutions of Saskatchewan’s four largest centres will soon be able to access the country’s largest wireless Internet network, free-of-charge. Premier Lorne Calvert and Minister responsible for Information Technology Andrew Thomson made the announcement today in Saskatoon.